Being labeled “innovative” is the ultimate compliment for businesses these days.

Fostering a culture of innovation, however, remains an enigma for many companies. Only 10 percent of participants in a Georgia Manufacturing Survey said they employ an innovation strategy, even as those that do report twice the sales returns as those that don’t.

“The main reason most companies do not innovate is that they do not have a proven process to come up with unique and innovative ideas and how to commercialize the most promising of those ideas,” said Orjan Isacson with Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, a business outreach organization. “The process has to be repeatable, efficient and successful.”

Isacson and the Enterprise Innovation Institute, or EI2, will offer local business leaders guidance on developing an innovation strategy next month with an Innovation Management Workshop. EI2 staffers Don Pital, Bob Wray and Connie Casteel will lead the workshop.

The discussion will be geared toward business decision makers, such as executives, business development leaders and plant managers.

The workshop will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 5 at the Savannah Morning News Auditorium. The cost is $25 and includes breakfast.

The workshop’s focus will be on developing new processes, services and products that can contribute to a business’s profitability. EI2’s Isacson predicts innovation management will be a key business growth strategy over the next 20 years.

Creative Coast Executive Director Jake Hodesh, who works with the tech and knowledge-based businesses in the region, noted innovation often leads to “higher efficiency levels, cost savings and overall streamlining” of business processes.

“Today more than ever, innovation and technology can mean the difference between a company operating in the black versus operating in the red,” Hodesh said. The Innovation Management Workshop “can help companies leverage innovation in an effort to develop a more profitable business strategy.”